Who is concerned

Official approval of law degrees is required for admittance to supplementary courses on Luxembourg law.

Lawyers from other EU Member States do not need to have their qualifications officially approved. They can contact the Ministry of Justice directly to request authorisation to practise law in Luxembourg.

Prerequisites

The applicant must have earned a law degree from a foreign law school which confers a higher-level legal qualification accredited in its own country.

This law degree must certify the successful completion of a full-time programme of legal study lasting at least:

4 years;

8 semesters; or

12 trimesters.

A part-time programme of legal study may be accepted, provided that the total number of course hours and the level and quality of the curriculum are on a par with those of the full-time programme.

The legal curriculum must have included the
following subject areas, as a bare minimum:

civil law;

commercial law;

criminal law or criminal procedure;

private or public international law;

constitutional or administrative law.

It should be noted that courses in civil law must have been taught for at least:

2 years;

4 semesters; or

6 trimesters.

The remaining subject areas must have been taught for at least one year, 2 semesters or 3 trimesters.

The law taught at the foreign institution must be based on
fundamental concepts similar to those underpinning the
Luxembourg legal system.

Preliminary steps

Applications for official approval of a law degree earned abroad must include a photocopy of the applicant’s secondary school graduation diploma.

If the secondary school graduation diploma was also earned abroad (A-Level, Abitur, Baccalauréat, Bachillerato, Certificat d’enseignement secondaire supérieur, High school diploma, Maturità, Selectividad, etc.), the applicant must first apply for the recognition of equivalence of this diploma in relation to the knowledge and qualifications certified by Luxembourg secondary school graduation diplomas.

Costs

Applicants must pay a fee of EUR 125 per diploma as a contribution towards the cost of processing their application for official approval.

The fee is to be paid by bank transfer to the following postal cheque account:

A fee of EUR 10 must be paid to obtain a duplicate of the official approval certificate.

If the application for official approval is rejected, the application fee is
not refunded.

How to proceed

Applications for official approval of higher education qualifications must be submitted to the MESR either by postal mail or in person together with the following documents:

a written statement on plain paper mentioning the reason for requesting the official approval;

a curriculum vitae;

a photocopy of the applicant’s birth certificate or identity card (for citizens of the EU, EEA and Switzerland), or passport (for nationals of other countries);

a photocopy of the applicant’s secondary school graduation diploma – i.e.:

either a Luxembourg general secondary or technical secondary school graduation diploma;

or a foreign secondary school graduation diploma recognised as equivalent to the Luxembourg diploma, in accordance with Luxembourg regulations in force;

a photocopy of the higher education degree certificated to be officially approved;

photocopies of any intermediate university qualifications earned if issued by the foreign country;

a photocopy of the official transcript for each year of study;

proof of payment of the fee of EUR 125 per qualification.

The documents must be drafted either in one of the 3 official languages of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg (French, Luxembourgish or German), or in English, or translated into one of these languages and certified by a sworn translator.